Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the feasibility of offering a multilingual platform for text-to-sign translation, i.e., a solution where a machine translates digital contents in several spoken languages to several sign languages in scenarios such as Digital TV, Web and Cinema. This solution called OpenSigns, is an open platform that has several common components for generic functionalities, initially originated from the Suíte VLibras, including the creation and manipulation of 3D animation models, and interchangeable mechanisms specific for each sign language, such as a text-to-gloss machine translation engine, a sign dictionary for each sign language, among others. Our motivation is that the concentration of efforts and resources around a single solution could provide some state-of-the-art improvement, such as a standard solution for the industry and a greater functional flexibility for common components. In addition, we could also share techniques and heuristics between the translation mechanisms, reducing the effort to make a new sign language available on the platform, which may further enhance digital inclusion and accessibility, especially for poorest countries.
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Notes
- 1.
The Suíte VLIBRAS is the result of a partnership between – removed for blind review, and consists of a set of tools (text, audio and video) for the Brazilian Sign Language (LIBRAS), making TVs, computers, mobile devices and Web platforms accessible to deaf. Currently, VLibras is used in several governmental and private sites, among them the main sites of the Brazilian government (brasil.gov.br), Chamber of Deputies (camara.leg.br) and the Federal Senate (senado.leg.br). Further information can be obtained from http://www.vlibras.gov.br.
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This API is able to identify the input language of a sentence and translate it automatically into a target spoken language (www.google.com/translate).
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- 4.
In this test, the authors randomly selected 69 sentences and two LS interpreters generated a sequence of glosses in LIBRAS for each one. Then the VLibras translator was used to automatically generate a sequence of glosses of these same sentences and the values of the WER and BLEU metrics were calculated for the two scenarios.
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Costa, R. et al. (2018). An Open and Extensible Platform for Machine Translation of Spoken Languages into Sign Languages. In: Abásolo, M., Abreu, J., Almeida, P., Silva, T. (eds) Applications and Usability of Interactive Television. jAUTI 2017. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 813. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90170-1_12
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